A Kaduna State High Court will hear the application of the leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Ibrahim El-Zazaky and his wife, who are seeking to travel to India for medical attention.

The State Director of Public Prosecution, Mr. Dari Bayero, said on Wednesday that the application would be heard in court on Thursday.

Bayero said the IMN leader brought the application seeking permission to travel to Medanta Hospital, New Delhi, India; and return to Nigeria as soon as they are discharged.

Bayero said that Justice D.H. Khobo would preside over the hearing on the application on July 18.

Sheikh Zakzaky has been held in detention since December 2015 and was charged just in April 2018 with murder, culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, disruption of public peace and other accusations. He has pleaded not guilty.

In 2016, Nigeria’s federal high court ordered his unconditional release from jail following a trial, but the government has so far refused to set him free.

The top cleric, who is in his mid-sixties, lost his left eyesight in a raid which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.

Recently this month, Sheikh Zakzaky’s son warned that his father's physical conditions are severely deteriorating and nearly all options to save his life have been lost.